Everyday Sister Wheat and I feel blessed to be in the House of the Lord observing patrons coming and going from the temple. We cannot help but ponder about the many silent, quiet acts of service being performed by so many wonderful and outstanding saints. We know and understand of the many sacrifices of those individuals who come daily to the temple to serve others, as well as those from other countries who visit the temple for the first time to receive their endowments. As we witness the excitement of visitors completing their own family file ordinances, we are thrilled for their accomplishments. We know of the hours of tireless work it takes to complete this work for their own ancestors.
Temple work is hard work; it requires long hours. It is unlike other service performed in the Church. The reason it is different is because often times one does not receive immediate appreciation or confirmation of the service performed. However, we do this work by faith, knowing it is our responsibility as Latter-day Saints. Some day, I truly believe that those we have served, who have greatly appreciated our efforts, will acknowledge and thank us with loving embraces.
“It matters not what else we have been called to do, or what position we may occupy, or how faithfully in other ways we have labored in the church, none is exempt from this great obligation. It is required of the Apostle as well as the humblest elder. Place, or distinction, or long service in the church, in the mission field, the stakes of Zion, or where or how else it may have been, will not entitle one to disregard the salvation of one’s dead.
Some may feel that if they pay their tithing, attend their regular meetings and other duties, give their substance to the poor, per chance spend one, two, or more years preaching in the world, that they are absolved from further duty, but the greatest and grandest duty of all is to labor for the dead!” Joseph Fielding Smith, Vol. II, Doctrines of Salvation.
As you attend the temple, you serve and bless the lives of those who are deceased, who cannot do the work for themselves. If you approach the temple in that frame of mind, I promise you that those unknown individuals, who are real living spirits in the spirit world, will in turn bless your lives.
“For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.” Luke 9:24
An ordinance worker or patron that serves with a willing heart will gain spiritual insight that can be found in no other place. Many people acknowledge that when they enter the House of the Lord, they feel so different and their problems of the world often disappear.
A man came to the Hong Kong Temple in a wheelchair. As he performed service for others, he was blessed and given the strength to walk from the temple as he returned home. Another patron with no confidence entered the temple, and after having the opportunity to perform all of the ordinances and serving others, his whole countenance changed and his face was filled with the spirit. He was a completely different person. May I ask you to ponder these words:
“And we ask thee, Holy Father, that thy servants may go forth from this house armed with thy power, and that thy name may be upon them, and thy glory be round about them, and thine angels have charge over them.” D&C 109:22
What a marvelous blessing to know that we will be armed with God’s power and those angels will have charge over us to bless our lives.
The knowledge we gain by serving others in the temple will help us see more clearly our priorities in life. We who live in this day are those whom I believe God has appointed to be his Priesthood representatives on the earth in this dispensation. In our hands lie the sacred powers of bringing to pass this great and ennobling work.
Our dead ancestors are anxiously waiting for us to search out their names and bring them to the temple to perform these ordinances for them, that they may be released from the prison house in the spirit world and progress.
I strongly encourage all of us to be a true temple-attending, temple-motivated, and temple-loving people. We must hasten to the temple as frequently as our personal circumstances allow. There we can bless the lives of our ancestors and ourselves by serving in this wonderful “Act of Service.”
